Media Diet week 18

Press: after the holiday, it was good to get back into my normal newspaper routine. I've read very widely this week - on top of my usual Guardian/Sun habit (one serious, one tabloid), I also delved regularly into the Telegraph, Mirror and even (ssh!) the Mail while following the appalling Fritzl case in Austria. I've spent so much time reading I'm behind on my work. The world stops when a story like that emerges and there are just no words.

Blogs: sod the blogs this week - I was persuaded to sign up for Twitter instead. Seems like most of the hackosphere is tweeting away - I spotted many people I know and many I know of. I've had fun getting a little community going around my own tweeting and was quite flattered to see some top journos deciding to follow me. No doubt the excitement will wear off soon, like it did with Facebook, but I suspect I will find Twitter more useful for work. Talking of Facebook, a PR company I like very much (and it's not often I say that) held a groundbreaking 2-hour live chat there this week so small companies could ask questions about PR and the media. I swung by for a while and ending up getting an idea for a pitch and making a very useful contact.

TV/radio: I watched the first episode of The Invisibles on Thursday, expecting it to be like Hustle - stylish and witty. It wasn't. It was dire. What a waste of a talented cast. I missed two episodes of The Apprentice while away, except I didn't really miss it - this year's crew have failed to excite me yet and most of them seem fairly indistinguishable so far. Until Wednesday, when I saw what a cow Jenny Celery is, what a bully Lee is and what a pointless pin-up Alex is. Over in Ambridge, not much is happening as usual, but that's why I like it - it ambles along slowly and undemandingly, yet is compulsive listening. Ross the Red-Top Wannabe is back digging for dirt again and I just loved his blog on the Archers homepage.

Books: I've just started Val McDermid's Beneath the Bleeding. I'm several chapters in already and I doubt it'll take long to finish as McDermid is usually unputdownable. It's another of her Tony Hill/Carol Jordan thrillers so I'm expecting great things and so far it's living up to expectations. And I've a stack more crime fic to get through after this one. I'm a happy bunny.